The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced exponential growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs, but it has also increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs.
For example, fin-like field effect transistors (FinFETs) have become a popular choice for design of high performance circuitry. While FinFETs' narrow fin width helps achieve short channel control, their source/drain (S/D) features tend to have a small landing for low-contact-resistance S/D contacts. FinFETs with multiple fins, or multi-fin FETs, are proposed for high-speed applications. However, multi-fin FETs suffer higher leakage and therefore higher power consumption when compared with FinFETs with a single fin.
Accordingly, improvements in semiconductor devices to achieve both high switching speed and low power consumption are desired.